During Number Talks, students develop Mathematical language and skills by engaging in each other’s strategies. When we learn Maths we develop understanding through visual models - these are mental pictures that explain a particular idea or concept. This helps all students to access the learning where they are at. A visual model can be as simple as a using the slices of a cake to represent fractions, but they can explain some pretty complex ideas in advanced Maths too.
Showing children 'quick images' and asking them how many they see is one way of developing subitising. An alternative way of developing conceptual subitising is to show children a number of dots and ask them to say how they see the number.
Number Frog and the Number Line: Most young learners are introduced to the number line at age 5 or 6. It's a valuable visual model for progressing learners from counting one by one with their fingers towards memory recall of their number facts.
Arrays: When learners first encounter multiplication they are usually introduced to Arrays. Arrays are great because they also explain why it doesn't matter which way round the numbers go in multiplication. E.G. In the case above you can see that four rows of six is the same as six rows of four - which explains why 4 x 6 is the same as 6 x 4 - otherwise known as the commutative law.
The Hundred Square/ Number Spider and Number Fly: allows learners to create patterns out of ideas in Maths.
We can draw to help us to solve mathematical problems
